Symbolic day evokes memories

D-Day veterans met the modern military in Grantham in May 2015 against a backdrop of aviation history and the first visit of the WWll Freedom Flame symbolising peace and unity.

St Wulfram's Church hosted talks, an exhibition and a service of blessing for the flame first lit by Field Marshal Montgomery in 1948, hosted at Wageningen in Holland where the peace treaty was signed and dramatically re-ignited in front of the church altar.

Historian Group Captain Bill Taylor related the story of Operation Doomsday on its 70th anniversary, when American aircraft flew the British Army's First Airborne Division from nearby RAF Barkston Heath to liberate Norway and disarm some 350,000 German troops. To cap the day veterans were treated to a private visit to St Vincent's, allied airborne HQ for major WW2 offensives.